THIS BLOG is created by the Arts & Media Archaeology team at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA, UAntwerp) and associated colleagues. We want to offer a peek behind the scenes of our research, including visits to unique archives or remarkable private collectors, seminars with international speakers, media archaeological experiments, and inspiring cases. Our aim is to showcase the varied and challenging nature of our research process.
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LATEST ARTICLES
Remembering together: What a conversation with showwomen adds to the archive
What can oral history reveal about fairground life that conventional archives cannot? In conversation with three retired showwomen, historian Véronique Faber and filmmaker Alexandra Rice recorded memories of work, family life and skills learned through practice. Together with Nele Wynants, they reflect on what happens when women remember their working lives collectively – and on how oral history can preserve traces of a mobile and performative culture that might otherwise be lost.
Unlocking lists in itinerant showpeople periodicals with AI
At the end of the nineteenth century, periodicals such as La Comète Belge were an important professional and social communication medium, connecting itinerant…
Unearthing precious fairground ephemera: From discovery to preservation
In the shadow of the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, an extraordinary collection of over four hundred fairground ephemera recently surfaced at a vintage…
‘What every young man should know and every young woman should see’. How you could learn all about pregnancy and childbirth at the fairground
The fair used to be a place to have fun, but also to discover something new. Young and old alike prepared to visit the lion tamer, the boxing stall, or the…
About
This blog is an initiative of the Arts & Media Archaeology team at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (UAntwerp) and associated colleagues.
We study the circulation of science, knowledge and visual culture through popular entertainment in the long nineteenth century. How were science and technology introduced to large audiences? What forms of knowledge were transmitted and disseminated through popular culture? What role did visual media play in the circulation of knowledge? At the same time, we look at how this culture continues to affect us today with attention to the changing relation between art and science.
Our interdisciplinary team brings together artists and researchers from Art and Performance Studies, Media Archaeology and Cultural History. We share an interest in the interactions between performance, science and technology, and their media archaeological entanglements.
FIND OUT MORE ON OUR RESEARCH PROJECTS
SciFair is a five-year research project (2021-2026) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 948678 – SciFair).